2021: The Year Gone By

As the Year 2021 AD draws to a close, here is looking back at events (and non-events) to remember the year gone by. Some will be remembered, others just forgotten. But then that is the fun of making these lists. And 

1. Covid continues

We thought 2020 was bad. With the arrival of vaccines, 2021 was going to be better. Well, vaccines arrived but so did the deadlier variants as well as deadlier side-effects. Whenever we thought we had ridden a wave, another bigger wave came along. Can never forget the collective trauma of April-May which we in India went through. Hopefully with increasing vaccine coverage and better understanding of the disease we might be able to get a semblance of normalcy. 

2. Ever Given

If ever there was a metaphor for humanity's fight against the virus, it was the image of a tiny excavator trying to move the stuck container ship. One ship (albeit a very large one) disrupted the whole global supply chain. 

3. 87.58m

The distance that javelin flew. And just like that India had an Olympic Gold in Athletics! The crowning glory of our most successful Games ever. Thank You Neeraj Chopra! 

4. US Capitol siege

The seat of most powerful nation seiged by people who looked like they were in a fancy-dress parade. Amongst other things they walked off with the House Speaker’s podium. Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe the scene 

5. The Ultimate Fight

Every action movie director imagines that single shot of perfection – a perfectly choreographed fight scene going all over the place with protagonists moving in and out of the shot, all in a single take. This great Chaat fight of Baghpat had it all. (YouTube Link) 

6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Monkeys avenging one infant’s death by killing off 250 puppies. They have even gone started attacking humans who attempted to protect the dogs. (Link)

7. Cred Ads

They are funny, but what exactly is the product? To be honest, seem to be celeb funny videos pretending to be a product ad. Rahul Dravid & Neeraj Chopra’s were the best ones. 

8. Reddit vs Wall Street

When reddit forum decided to take on Wall Street. And from nowhere the Game Stop’s share price zoomed up and stayed up destroying a couple of hedge funds. Lets not underestinate the power of the collective mob! 

9. Zoom Mishaps

Work From Home, online classes and virtual meeting are continuing. So are the additions to the zoom mishaps (or MS teams & Google Meet, platform doesn’t matter). It has become a video category in itself. Special mention – where a lawyer turned up with a cat filter on. He reiterates, “I am not a cat”.

10. The Perfect Work Background Noise 

A recording of a meeting of the Finance & Corporate Committee of Waipa District Council, New Zealand suddenly gained popularity as people started using it as background noise to show that they themselves are in a meeting and to not get disturbed (YouTube Link)

That was the Year 2021. Lets hope that we stop living in these “unprecedented” times soon and get back to the “old normal” in 2022. 

Wishing all readers, a Very Happy, Healthy and Safe 2022!

India @74

Well, last year I was wrong!

Things took a turn for the worse in India’s 74th year, a lot worse. We nearly sailed over the Covid wave, celebrated early, even declared victory and then got hit hard by the variant. Those terrible weeks of April & May, where the nation was living through a collective trauma have been one of the most painful ones of recent times. People running around for oxygen cylinders and essential medicines. Queues for hospitals and even for cremations. Existing systems and the people manning them completely overwhelmed, yet carrying on. Even the crematoriums were malfunctioning due to excess use! Almost everyone was either affected themselves or had near and dear ones impacted. We were living in a dystopian reality. 

Amidst all this the key stakeholders in the Central government had gone incognito. There was an eerie silence, no words of reassurance or even acknowledgment of the grim situation came forth, and as it came out later no data as well. In fact, they were more in a denial mode. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens tried to help each other out. However, amidst the good Samaritans were the rotten apples as well, selling making a killing with exorbitant rates or worse providing fake medicines. Some finding their “aapda me avsar” while most citizens got a brutal lesson in becoming aatm-nirbhar. 

The government can’t even take full blame though, as the citizens kept flocking to potential hotspots – election rallies, sporting events, religious festivals and tourist spots, while not following even the basic mask and social distancing protocols. It has been a long year, but some more restraint would help. 

Then the Farmer Protests which have been going on for a while with no resolution in sight. Simply, because, it is in nobody’s interest to resolve it. The longer an issue runs, the longer it can be milked for various political purposes. 

The polarization of opinion on social media is near absolute. Every single issue is seen as either for or against with people picking sides based on their confirmation bias. Balance and logic in debates has simply gone for a toss. 

But enough of the negativity. It is said, read the newspaper back to front. The sports pages at the last register the human achievements while the rest of the pages are simply chronicling our failures.

Success in the sporting arena provided some succor. India had their best Olympics haul ever including a second Gold medalist in Neeraj Chopra and a potential resurgence in Hockey. What a moment it was to hear Jana Gana Mana played out in Tokyo! Hopefully the other Indian sports (i.e. non-cricket ones) build on from these Games. After all, our one billion plus populace should be able to easily accommodate all sports in the World. 

Cricket provided epic rearguard moment as the Aussie bastion of Gabba was finally breached. Yet, it was also in news for hosting the IPL amidst a pandemic. The argument of IPL providing a welcome distraction in the covid times began to ring hollow. And finally had to be suspended. The virus breaches even the most secure bio-bubbles. 

So, after a harrowing year, where do we stand? Dare we hope again for normalcy, as the vaccine roll-out gathers a bit of momentum while simultaneously bracing ourselves for further waves? Will there ever be a normal again? Or we keep adapting to the “new normal”? If the covid ravaged days have given one positive, it is the fact that one is not totally alone. Just ask for help. It might not necessarily come on time. But there will be people who will try (as per their might) to help out. And that to me is the silver lining amidst all the dark clouds. 

On that tiny note of positivity, a Very Happy Birthday to India! 

Corona Chronicles – WFH/Office Edition

It has been over a year since that fateful day in March of 2020, when the office issued a “temporary” Work From Home orders. It was extended by a fortnight, then another fortnight and then sine die. Over a year of working from home has been an interesting experience. 

The biggest realization has been that what is referred to as "work" comprises of sending emails, checking calendars, arranging and attending meetings and finally preparing documents (excel, powerpoint, word and then transforming them to pdfs). In short almost wholly dependent on the power of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Teams! 

The commute disappeared (not a bad thing given the Mumbai traffic) but with it also went away the buffer zone between office and home. Earlier we used to get ready for office, travel to office, settle in and start “work”. Now we switch on the laptop, connect the internet and the vpn and then maybe “get ready” while simultaneously cleaning up, preparing meals and entertaining the kid. 

Office attire has changed to Polo T-shirts & pajamas/shorts. As for the usual work clothes – the shoes are gathering dust in the shoe rack, socks have gone into the deepest recesses of the cupboards and the shirts & trousers are lying neatly ironed and folded. All of them wondering if their wearer has vanished altogether! 

And office meetings & calls keep getting interrupted. Because the little one likes to make their presence felt. Meanwhile the office colleagues actually welcome this interruption. 

Meanwhile meetings have developed their own idiosyncrasies. 

One can join multiple meetings simultaneously – one from laptop, one from phone; maybe take another call while being “present” in one meeting. Sometimes “move” from one meeting to the other and find almost the same group present there as well. It has also resulted in meetings mostly starting on time, because you don’t have to physically move. 

Speaking up and making a point and then wondering why no has responded, and realizing you forgot to "unmute" yourself. Then repeating the same point after unmuting (with lesser effect) while the the opportunity has already sailed away. 

Using backgrounds when you switch on the camera and realizing multiple people in the meeting are in the same setting. After all not everyone has the luxury of a well-stocked cupboard filled with photogenic books in the background! 

Multi-tasking in meetings is something we have become adept at – working on another document or reading something else or watching the game on TV or maybe chopping vegetables.  

The golden words oft heard during the past year – “Am I audible?”, “Is my screen visible?”, “I am sorry I was on mute”, “Are you there? You seem to be on mute”. “Can those who are not speaking mute themselves”. See, getting the hang of the mute button is the skill!

Meanwhile the responsibility of the HR team has increased as they have to now organize virtual Fun sessions as well! 

While these are the fun aspects, there are a few on the flip side as well. 

Somehow the meetings have just multiplied. And more meetings leading to more fatigue. The number of visitors to the ophthalmologists would have seen a drastic jump given the increased time spent staring at a screen. 

Then there has been an exponential growth in Webinars (a parallel pandemic in itself). Can’t even give the excuse of having a meeting in another city these days! Attended more conferences and industry meets – without leaving the chair/desk/floor/bed. Yet what we got was just the boring part of the meet – listening to presenters & not the fun part – going somewhere! And all this while still being in the regular day job environment. Overall, making things more tedious. 

Increased hours and disappearing holidays. How to take a leave is becoming a challenge in itself? And there is the lack of informal connects, in the absence of face-to-face interaction it takes more effort to ping/call someone than just corridor talk. 

Then there is that MS Teams ringtone – tun tung tun tung tun tung! Sometimes coming from multiple devices simultaneously. There is simply no escape! 

And finally no coffee and snacks! If you want to have a hot beverage go and prepare it yourself, a process which starts with cleaning the bartan! 

Not for nothing is this being referred to as the “New Normal”. Wondering how it would feel when we return to office and actually see the same people face to face!

Corona Chronicles: The Word List

The year 2020 A.D. was to put it mildly a bit different! And that difference, among other things, introduced more than a few words into the everyday lexicon. So, in keeping with the theme of the year, presenting my word list for 2020! 

1. Virus – after years the biological virus once again became a primary global threat regaining its crown from the digital version. (Also, Covid & Corona) 
2. Pandemic – the virus went global truly establishing how the world has shrunk and turned into a global village! 
3. Lockdown – to keep the virus in check, governments across the world, imposed lockdowns of varying severity & duration and yielding mixed results. There was a major dispute between the economists & medical professionals on who suffered more – the economy or the health! The dispute remains unresolved in this race to bottom 
4. WFH – Many worked from home or anywhere (WFA). Some took workcations. Whatever the form the way we work has changed. Work is anywhere you place your laptop and have an internet connection! 
5. Zoom – Connecting the working world virtually (alongwith its siblings MS Teams, Webex, JioMeet, Google Meet etc). Also bringing office into home & vice versa! And on a related topic lead to “Zoom Fatigue” setting in as well from being in and out of meetings/calls throughout the day. 
6. Unmute – It’s a meeting, you raise your point and realise that no one is noticing you. Mostly because you had kept yourself on Mute and forgot to “unmute” yourself. 
7. Social distancing – To maintain lockdowns governments asked us to practice social distancing. Shouldn’t they have rather termed it physical distancing! 
8. Bubble – Sports figured a way to get back in action. It was replicated by other agencies as well. Just put the required people in a bubble life with breaches being severely dealt with. But only after making them spend considerable time in Quarantine (been through one – not particularly a fan) 
9. Superspreaders & Hotspots – the anti-bubble, places with multiple cases and causing exponential growth in the infected. (Also, Contact Tracing) 
10. Covidiot – Individuals who don’t bother following simple guidelines – no Masks or necessary PPE using non-essential services! Making themselves a easy prey for the virus as well as potentially becoming a spreader while making contact tracing difficult.
11. Pandemic fatigue – And to round up this word list – pandemic fatigue, from being locked down, attempting to balance household work with office work, sanitizing everything, no general entertainment avenues and the prevailing news environment. The fatigue had to set in! And there were many more variants of above!

Word List as per WHO

Corona Chronicles – The DJ Playlist

So here I am quarantining prior to making an entry into the bubble life. The pandemic and consequent precautions have killed the to & fro day trips. Now any work visit is strictly monitored and becomes a month-long exercise starting with tests and quarantine. But that is not something worth blogging about (or maybe it is, after all, there suddenly seems a bit more time to do nothing). 

So there I am minding my business when from across the safety of the window I hear the sounds of some function going on nearby, probably a reception. Which for some reason also had a DJ, who was trying desperately to throw some life into the small gathering (another collateral impact of the virus, no big, fat public functions anymore). 

Well, lets just say, the playlist was quite an interesting mix. And me, utilizing the solitude, diligently noted down the entire playlist as the songs came on. There were a few repeats as well. I guess some sort of musical chairs was also on, where the participation seemed, to put it gently, less than enthusiastic! But I digress, so coming back here is the playlist. 

Presenting the 2020 Corona Chronicles DJ mix 

1. We will rock you – Queen (YouTube) Great song but for opening the reception party? 
2. Sapne me milti hai – Satya (YouTube) Much better. 
3. Bala bala – Housefull 4 (YouTube)  I don’t like the song
4. Gangnam style – PSY (YouTube)  Why why why? 
5. Aankh Maare - Simbaa (YouTube) Anything to embarrass the couple on stage! I liked the older version though
6. Bolo tara ra ra – Daler Mehndi (YouTube) They are getting into the groove now
7. Khaike paan banaraswala - Don (YouTube) Where did this come from? 
8. Zingaat – Sairat (YouTube) I liked this one 
9. Kajra re – Bunty Aur Babli (YouTube) Heard this one after ages! 
10. Dil chori sada ho gaya – Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (YouTube) Another appropriate one 
11. Ishq tera tadpave – Sukhbir (YouTube) The Grand Finale - had to end with this one. After all which party in India doesn’t play this one & which DJ does not mute the oh ho ho bit.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara could have done with this cultural mix - songs in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi and Korean! A proper pot pourri of songs. But who am I to judge, it certainly kept yours truly engrossed for a while (and more).